FBI Monitored Multiple Hate Groups In Idaho
The arrest of 31 Patriot Front members, including the white-nationalist group's leader Thomas Rousseau, for allegedly conspiring to assault an Idaho LGBTQ event represented a sobering step up in the organization of alt-right hate groups against LGBTQ populations and gatherings.
But a new report from Rolling Stone shows that the arrests in Coeur d'Alene, ID on June 11 were not only a product of the FBI's monitoring of Patriot Front, but that the agency had been monitoring multiple xenophobic hate groups over the last year.
Coeur d'Alene Plot Unraveled
According to the report, the FBI monitored and reported Patriot Front activities to Idaho law enforcement dating back to August of last year, including increasing acts of vandalism in Coeur d'Alene specifically. Complaints about Patriot Front posters and stickers promoting the white-nationalist organization rolled in from residents of the city at that time. The FBI and local police updated each other as the propaganda campaign continued, trying to identify individuals that posted the material.
“We need to catch these people. Disgusting,” said Coeur d'Alene Mayor Steve Widmyer in an email exchange with law enforcement obtained by nonprofit organization Property of the People.
This effort continued in the lead-up to the North Idaho Pride Alliance (NIPA) event in Coeur d'Alene on June 11, with the FBI working with local police to track potential actions from Patriot Front and plan a response. The group's plot was eventually dismantled after someone submitted an anonymous tip and local police intervened, arresting 31 similarly dressed, masked and armed men before they could execute their U-Haul truck-piloted attack on those celebrating the LGBTQ community.
“They are actively providing information to local law enforcement so they can intercede to ensure the health and safety of others,” former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti told Rolling Stone. “This is not unusual.”
More Than Just Patriot Front
Those same communications between law enforcement and government officials also show that Patriot Front wasn't the only hate group whose activities were being tracked in relation to anti-LGBTQ activity in the area. Both the Proud Boys and the Panhandle Patriots, an alt-right biker group local to northern Idaho, issued threats toward the NIPA event and attempted to mobilized individuals to disrupt the event.
According to the report, Proud Boys chapters in the area spread word of the NIPA event, using anti-LGBTQ rhetoric (“groomers”) in those messages. The communications became even more frequent in the weeks before the event.
The Panhandle Patriots popped up in relation to the Proud Boys' communications blitz, with the group threatening to attack a Pride parade in Idaho Falls, ID scheduled for June 25, according to an email from local law enforcement referencing an FBI tip. One Panhandle Patriots member allegedly said, “If gays want a war, we'll give them a war,” per the email. The group ultimately did not follow through on those threats.
According to NIPA organizers, the Coeur d'Alene event “was a great success,” with roughly 2,000 people in attendance, many of which weren't even aware of the Patriot Front arrests until seeing news reports. “The energy that was felt throughout the venue was overwhelmingly positive and full of love and connection,” Jessica Mahuron, NIPA outreach director, told The Spokesman-Review last week. “It was safe, even given some of the challenges on the fringes of our event and sometimes interfering in our event.”
Though the Pride event didn't experience violence or major disruption, Mahuron noted that the tactics and hateful rhetoric of the various hate groups that organized and motivated others to participate in such actions deserve serious attention. “It's something that a lot of different agencies in the community need to have a conversation about: Where things go from here,” Mahuron said. “I personally would like for us to see the hope that is in our story, about a small community organization that faced enormous challenges that are not normal for even a Pride organization to experience.”
Idaho LGBTQ: Previously on Towleroad
Image via North Idaho Pride Alliance
